Beth : photos : January/February 2005- powered by SmugMug

Tu B'Shevat; Katamon; East Jerusalem; the Golan Heights

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Beth > Wow - this is when I knew I was really in the Palestinian territories.

Beth > Welcome to the West Bank! I'm not sure this photo really captures the beauty - but it was quite a striking panorama. And not so different from what it must have looked like in Biblical times.

Beth > Tu BiSh'vat, the Jewish "New Year of Trees" or Jewish Arbor Day, has in modern times become tied to the tradition of planting trees in Israel. The day before the holiday, three friends from HUC and I traveled to the West Bank with Rabbis for Human Rights to plant olive trees there. Olive trees are both sources of livelihood for Palestinian farmers and symbols of peace.

Beth > We planted trees in Bidu, a Palestinian village that borders on the Green Line, the 1949-1967 borders of Israel which are considered by many to represent what the future permanent borders of the state should look like.

Bidu was just a short drive away from Jerusalem, but it's a totally different world. As we drove through the center of town on bumpy streets, a man riding on a donkey led a small herd of goats down the road. The man was also wearing a New York Yankees cap - and you thought globalization was just a catch phrase.

Beth > Why Bidu? And why plant trees in the West Bank at all?

The Separation Fence you've heard so much talk about roughly follows the Green Line. Unfortunately, "roughly," isn't quite close enough - the wall extends into acres and acres of Palestinian farm land, making it impossible for Palestinians to access these lands and earn their livings, and setting a precedent that could make it easier to take these lands away from the Palestinians. The Supreme Court of Israel recently ruled that while Israel has the right to defend itself by building the Fence, the current route of the Fence unnecessarily encroaches on Palestinian rights.

Beth > The big road you can see is in fact not a road, but the planned route of the Fence. The Green Line (not a real line, just a political border) is further in the distance.

Beth > So if most Israelis accept that the Green Line should - or at the least realistically will end up being - the eventual borders of Israel, why is the Fence being built so far off from the Green Line? The answer is those red-roofed buildings in the background.

Beth > Here's a close-up of this Jewish settlement, which is outside of the Green Line. The settler movement in Israel builds communities in the West Bank and Gaza because they believe that all of the land promised to the Israelites in the Bible should be part of the State of Israel. But I (and the Reform Jewish Movement, the Israeli peace movement, Thomas Friedman, and others) believe that the settlements are exacerbating the conflict, and that Israel should not seek to control these lands, which are all majority Palestinian.

By planting trees, we not only show solidarity and build bridges of trust with the Palestinian community, but we also help to strengthen the Palestinian claims to their land if and when there are attempts to expropriate these lands.

Beth > A Palestinian man who works with Rabbis for Human Rights explains the landscape to us.

Wow - this is when I knew I was really in the Palestinian territories.

> Wow - this is when I knew I was really in the Palestinian territories.

Wow - this is when I knew I was really in the Palestinian territories.

Camera: Olympus Corporation (C765uz) |

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Original size: 2288px x 1712px |

Current: 400px x 300px |

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